Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Early in the morning (but after breakfast, of course, though an indoor breakfast, because it was just too cool and gray to eat outdoors)

...I went to yoga class. Our wonderful, calm instructor was a few seconds late and he let us know right away that he was having a terrible morning. Flat tire, car expenses, you name it.

Students don't often think about a teacher's bad day and had he not mentioned it, we would have assumed that his usual soothing instructions were as always, coming from a guy at total peace with the world. His smile at the end of class certainly implied as much.

After class, I was, again, taken in by the prairie flowers. These side of the road blooms have really exploded where we live. Today they get their honorable mention again, here on Ocean.

The stars of the day:

And then it was more hours spent on getting my credit/identity issues in order (I'm getting used to this new time commitment in life). And cleaning the house, because I didn't on Sunday and so I had to do it today. And sitting down to mountains of work. Inside. With the kitchen light on. Because it's just such a gray day.

In fact, so colorless are the skies that I had to go out and face the farmhouse just for a boost of brightness. (The flowers in the center, growing to such great heights? They're natives. They're imitating the prairie we have around us.)

The day moves toward evening. Ed is out doing a handful of Ed things. We are to play tennis this afternoon. I'm psyched. Our game has been improving.

The hours come and go. No Ed.

And the evening comes and he still has not returned. This is what it's like to live with a guy who does not own a cell phone. You cannot touch base. You let the day flow and you take it as it comes.

Except, he knows I cook dinner now. And so I think about the next awful step: call local hospitals? He rides his motorbike among the crazies out there.

As I sit with that heavy weight you carry when your kid misses a curfew and you think -- fuck the curfew, just get home -- the phone rings. A woman tells me -- hi, you don't know me, but I just ran into a guy on a motorcycle...

Oh no.

I feel rage inside -- what, were you texting and driving? Were you distracted by your cell phone???

But she quickly corrects herself -- well, I didn't run into him, he was already there, at the side of the road. I found him there and he asked me to call. Flat tire. He wants you to know -- it'll be a while.

So you could say that flat tires were the bookmarks for my day. Makes me smile. Just flat tires. Nothing more serious than that.